April 8, Daniel's blog

One week anniversary

Today was the first Sunday of the trip, and each Sunday is a free day to spend with our host families. Owen and I started off the morning by finishing then glueing together the 300-piece puzzle we started the night before. It was a community effort; Oliver, our host brother, and our host dad popped in and joined us. Owen taught me the strategy to best complete the puzzle: isolate the edge pieces and piece them together, sort the pieces by color (or animals in this case), combine the animals and plants, and lastly apply a layer of glue to secure the completed puzzle. Now we have a completed and glued puzzle that has become a gift created through team effort.

We had an unexpected change of plans with our host family and so Owen and I joined Zara, Syndiely, Akal, and Sarah. Zara and Sarah’s host dad walked us to a water reservoir. There was a massive dam that was dried up. He told us that it was empty because the water was released earlier in the year. We continued our walk to a RV camp and we noticed how it was more like a hotel where the RVs are permanent. Walking past the RVs and through a short trail in the woods, we arrived at a much smaller reservoir. The host dad explained that this was where everyone in the village got their water. I noticed that there was a “no fishing” sign and asked him if there were fish in the reservoir. The host dad pointed to a little clearing up ahead where there was a lawn chair and said that people still fish here. On the way back from the reservoir, we passed by some peacocks in a caged area and watched the male ones spread their tail and ruffle their feathers.

-Daniel